Kaitlyn W.

Dorothea Dix had the ambitious goal of achieving better living conditions for and facilities for the mentally ill and insane. She did not agree with the disgraceful conditions they were living in at the time, but there were many people that thought what she was going after was a lost cause. Many people did not agree that the mentally ill deserved better conditions than what they were currently getting because there was no cure for insanity. Dorothea knew, however, that the mentally ill could be helped.

The methods that Dorothea used were both well thought out and effective. Her first step in her reform started when she was holding a Sunday school session in the East Cambridge Jail. Dorothea was appalled at the living conditions of the mentally ill and insane in the prison. She strongly felt a difference could, and should, be made, and wanted to improve the conditions of the mentally ill. In one statement, Dorothea said, "some may say these things cannot be remedied, these furious maniacs are not to be raised from these base conditions. I know they are...I could give many examples. One such is a young woman who was for years 'a raging maniac' chained in a cage and whipped to control her acts and words. She was helped by a husband and wife who agreed to take care of her in their home and slowly she recovered her senses."

This experience led her to visit every state east of the Mississippi River. She visited the jails and almshouses where the mentally ill were kept. She took extremely descriptive notes of everything she saw, and then took it as far as confronting the government about the issue. In 1843 Dorothea addressed the Massachusetts Legislature about taking the initiative to improve

Dorothea Dix had a lot of success in her reform for better treatment of the mentally ill. She had a very significant role in the founding of 32 mental hospitals, 15 schools for the feeble minded, a school for the blind, and nurse training facilities. Not everything went well though. Later, when Dorothea proposed the Bill for the Indigent Insane, though it made it through Congress, was turned down by the President and ultimately failed. Despite this failure, the effects of Dorothea’s successes are still being seen today.

Dorothea’s goals did not seem practical at the time mostly because she was a woman, and women were usually just in the background. She on the other hand was trying to change lives and peoples’ view of the mentally ill. Her methods of visiting jails and other establishments though were probably as practical as they could have been. She simply went there to take notes. Her confrontation with the legislature though was questionable in the time period. The Legislature of Massachusetts being made strictly of men should not have listened to just one, weak women, who in many men’s eyes, was not capable of such success, but Dix won them over with a compelling speech to help her cause.

I think that the President should provide the land and the money to build more mental hospitals and institutions for the mentally ill, to make sure they have the living conditions they deserve. I also think he, and state legislation should look over the conditions of the places the mentally ill are living to prevent their conditions from worsening or staying the same.

Horace Mann was a reformer himself and was an advocate of better education. He was later known as the “Father of Education,” and lived in Massachusetts where Dorothea did a lot of her work. Later in Dorothea’s career when she felt like she had few supporters, Mann came forth as one of several significant supporters of Dorothea’s cause. He stood behind her in her fight for her reform.